Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Diagonaldi Very well executed

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Leofwine_draca If, like me, you're sick of the wealth of reality TV programming that has swamped television stations as of late - I'm talking about stuff like Big Brother and Survivor - then SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS acts as a pleasing satire of the shows, emphasising the ridiculous nature of over-the-top voice-over commentary, the exploitation of the weaknesses of the people involved and turning real people's lives into a slick, sick documentary. The film drags you into the lives of the six people and viewing does indeed become as gripping as the producers had intended. Be warned, though, that this production is not for all tastes and indeed it often does tread the line of good taste. The violence is hard and brutal (especially during a supermarket massacre) without being unnecessarily gory and adds to the strong realism of the production - imagine a drama in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT mould and you'll be halfway there.The strength of the film lies in the excellent acting involved from the entire cast, characters who really do embrace the roles they have and get under the skin to really understand them. Of particular interest are Brooke Smith, who's scarily believable as the heavily pregnant gun-toting Dawn, a veteran of the game show who doesn't think twice about shooting a fellow participant dead in cold blood; then there's Marylouise Burke who happens to be very frightening as the friendly-nurse-turned-angel-of-death. Glenn Fitzgerald also excels as the man dying of testicular cancer who has a complete character transformation as the film progresses. None of the actors are recognisable but a brief look at their resumes reveal that most are veterans in film. This is undoubtedly their finest hours to date and all come away with honours in my opinion.Elsewhere the film achieves a high standard of technical competence, and resembles the shows which it seeks to emulate very much so indeed. Razor-sharp editing and the smarmy, eager narration adds to the experience and of course the realism. Although the pacing of the second half is a little slow - my only complaint about the movie - things pick up for an ending which packs more twists in than most and finishes with an epilogue you won't see coming. Renters looking for a movie out of the mainstream and with a nice original concept for a change may find their curiosity rewarded with this amusing but often disturbing satire.

MBunge There are very few films that would ever be improved by being more like a comic book fanboy, but Series 7 is one of those films. The premise of this movie is that it is actually a marathon showing of back-to-back episodes of a reality TV show called The Contenders. Except this show isn't about boxers or Muy Thai fighters. In this show, 6 people are given guns and told the winner is the last one left alive. TV camera crews follow each Contender around as they kill each other off. The reigning champion in this 7th season of the show is Dawn (Brooke Smith), a very pregnant woman who has already killed her way through two previous seasons and 10 people. Now Dawn's been brought back to her hometown to square off against 5 final opponents; Connie (Marylouise Burke) - a nurse who takes to killing like a duck to water, Tony (Michael Kaycheck) - a drug addicted Guido who decides he doesn't want to play the game, Franklin (Richard Venture) - an old crank who has coated the inside of his mobile home with lead foil, Lindsay (Angelina Philips) - a teenager with the world's stupidest parents and Jeffrey (Glenn Fitzgerald) - Dawn's old boyfriend who is dying of cancer and is married, even though he's really gay. These 6 people fight and don't fight, kill and don't kill, all while a smarmy narrator teases the audience with their eventual fates. Clearly, Series 7 is meant as a black comedy take on the reality TV genre and it does a decent job of mimicking the conventions of the genre. There are confessional moments where the characters talk directly into the camera. The show is constantly building up to big moments and then cutting away from them to stretch the suspense out as long as possible. There are even a couple of good bits where they are obviously mocking the way reality TV show producers edit these shows together to manipulate the audience into thinking and feeling certain ways about the people in the show. But the basic problem of Series 7 is that it doesn't take itself seriously enough. Being too serious is usually bad for any movie, especially a black comedy, but this story needed to be thought out a lot more. That brings in the comic book fanboy. I am one, so I can speak from experience. We take our comics very seriously. Not only can we rattle off ridiculous bits of trivia, but we actually sit around and think about stuff like…who would win in a fight between Werewolf by Night and Vixen from the Justice League. We try and figure out how Iron Man's boot jets would work in real life. We try and explain why Modok doesn't kill Captain America when he has him tied up and at the big giant head's mercy. We don't just enjoy out comics, we enjoy coming up with our own explanations for how the things in comics could and would actually happen. Series 7, however, doesn't spend any time at all thinking about that stuff. It establishes that people are chosen by lottery to participate in The Contenders, but that's where the background information ends. I t's never explained who is running the show. It's never explained how a show like this exists. It's never explained what these people are playing for, other than their lives. I t's never even really explained how the game works. Imagine watching an episode of Survivor where no one ever explained to you that the players can win immunity by doing certain things. The way the contestants behave wouldn't make much sense, would it?Series 7 doesn't bother to think about how a murderous reality show would have to be set up. It just has these people being followed around by camera crews wearing bullet proof vests, but that doesn't make any sense. There'd be camera guys getting shot left and right, both deliberately and accidentally. A reality TV show about people killing each other would have to be different in certain ways than The Amazing Race or Big Brother, but this script never bothers to wonder about any of that. That lack of intelligence or care undermines the whole film. The actors all do a decent job, but the script puts them in situations and behave in ways that don't make any sense because the script never bothers to consider how a show like this would work in real life. Series 7 was made when reality TV was still a newish genre. Perhaps back then, you could more appreciate the satire because how a reality show worked was less certain and less well understood. Today, though, we know so much about what reality TV is and how it's made that it's hard not notice that Series 7 is rather lazily put together.

johnnyboyz It's a brave film, I'll give it that but Series 7: The Contenders is just too casual and at times, oddly uninspiring nor interesting when it comes to the pinch. I can only assume that writer/director Daniel Minahan is American and wrote this low-budget, purposely amateurish looking piece at a time and in a world where reality TV is quite probably the bane of television. Coming from the United Kingdom, we get a show entitled Big Brother once a year in the summer which usually turns into one long, hot summer slog as every night we tune in to see what pointlessness unknown's to us have got up to.For Britain, that's about as far as it goes but America perhaps take it several steps too far; they glamorise their reality stars and take it to a level that is beyond sensibility. Programs such as 'The Hills' and many real-life, MTV, 'spring break' (whatever the hell that is) set programs covering the actions and re-actions of American teens; all of whom do not, it would seem, have a care in the world. This sort of material threatens to leak over to our screens but mercifully; it is limited to only the digital networks and not the mainstream, free-to-air channels. And so comes Series 7, a film posing as a TV programme that we are directly watching but comes off as a failed piece of entertainment more so than it does an attack on reality TV.Series 7 may fall short but it is only a marginal fail, in my opinion. By the time the film enters its final stretch, I feel we are supposed to feel genuine compassion for the characters as they come to terms with their feelings but if we are not supposed to and are to remain focused on the satire then the film has failed on an even larger scale because we are wasting our time watching it. This is due to the satire that has been introduced, arrived and then left in exchange for what I presume to be mere guilty entertainment. The biggest problems with Series 7: The Contenders is its logic but this may be deliberate since a lot of reality TV shows (and their competitors) have logistical problems. These can range from the straight forward continuity errors such as the blowing out of a tire of one competitor's vehicle before having it intact the next scene to the passage of thinking of certain characters.The film comes off almost like a Dogme '95 film what with its use of natural lighting, real life settings, utilisation of props found on the location and hand held camera. The film does contain voice-overs and inserts found footage but even Scandinavian Dogme films break the rules now and again - and they invented the movement. The primary error with the film is that despite trying to look like a reality TV show, you never get the convincing feeling you're watching one. This is due to a lack of consistency on the character's respective behalf's. The idea is that several random people get drawn to take part in a free for all death match across a randomly selected city using guns or whatever they like to kill the other competitors: last one standing wins. Brilliant idea, you think but when characters such as Tony (Kaycheck) are stupid enough to remain in their homes despite knowing they're in the game, only leaving when they come under fire from other competitors, you know you're watching something that has something to say on a certain subject (reality TV) but is not putting in enough effort to make it a subjective experience.There is a distinct lack of empathy (perhaps deliberately so) towards Dawn (Smith) when she tells us her father is 'buried around here, somewhere' before insulting him. Later on, we must like her enough to support her when the film enters its final acts. Then there is the flaw in the overall idea of the film: if last competitions victor is brought back each time then that person will be continuously living a life of killing, etc. until they are killed themselves – that cannot be right, can it? Then there is the issue surrounding the theological reason for the programme. The government within the film's universe comes up with this idea that there must be a contest in which the last competitor left standing wins and they use guns to kill each other. Surely in a country like America, what with its gun culture; its frequent shootings and gun crime, such an idea would be in poor taste. So we are to believe the government is promoting the use of firearms as a means of entertainment instead as a means of protection – which is also in bad taste.I know it sounds like a contradiction but the most disturbing things amongst all this low budget but high realism violence are actually the scenes with Jeff (Fitzgerald) and his wife and how certain elements within his life affect the overall situation of the game. But it is a small element of drama that quickly turns into routine romance that we've seen in films such as Natural Born Killers, True Romance and Badlands. Indeed, more bizarre still; try watching this film which is 'government run' on a commercial television channel: a government produced TV show that is interrupted by adverts? Now you're really starting to take the cake.

merklekranz Zero laughs, even though the opportunity for black comedy was fertile. The characters are cartoon-like and the script is very thin. Way up there on the stupid scale, it is exploitive and comes across as nothing more than boring TV. This is perhaps the ultimate "so what" video. If it had been written as black comedy, interest might have been maintained, but as is, the over the top premise of six strangers trying to kill each other totally lacks interest. The special effects are poor, and the thing just grinds on as the contestants go about stalking each other. Avoid this at all costs, it is devoid of any possible entertainment value. - MERK